visionary

she wakes up, cold,
at the precipice of
rapid loves (ending, starting,
rinse and repeat);
carelessness is in the air
tonight. she wants to
journey away on a ship
inside a bottle,
illusion before substance,
always the same.
sitting among flowering orchids
(everything exotic for her,
greenhouse illusions),
i was an ending.
"the shortest distance between two places,"
she told me,
"is a diagonal line."
and then she drew two hearts in the dirt
with her calloused toes
and a line between them
so that i could understand.
she ran away in the cold night,
and i understood her need to journey.
i wondered if she'd ever be able
to rinse the dirt off her feet.